Back to Cambodia

Anlong Veng, in the north-west of Cambodia, is slowing changing. The ancient stronghold of the Khmer Rouge has partially emerged from isolation thanks to a new road and it is trying to come to a new life. This area on the border with Thailand was the theatre of the last episodes of the Red Khmer history, the communist revolutionaries who ruled Cambodia from 1975 to 1979 imposing one of the cruellest regimes on earth. 

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Peru: The Cloud People

Who are the Chachapoyas?

The first evidence of this mysterious people dates back to 800 a.D., before the Inca age. Much of what we do know about these light-skinned and fair-haired warriors is based on archaeological evidence from funerary sites, ruins, pottery, and other artefacts.

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The Last Seven Storytellers of Marrakech

What is Djemaa el Fna? “It is a sea. You can swim in the sea but you will never be able to entirely explore the sea of Djemaa el Fna”. “Djemaa el Fna is like a spring of Art”, “Djemaa el Fna is more than a school, it is a University”, “It is drama, poetry, creation, singing, enchantment”.

“In Djemaa el Fna you forget about all your problems and enter a different world with a mysterious culture where you can learn a lot – that's why it is called Djemaa el Fna".

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Gnawas: the frantic dance of ecstasy

The term Gnawa has two meanings in present day Morocco. It refers to an ethnic minority that traces its origins to the black slaves and soldiers brought from Sub-Saharian Africa (Mauritania, Senegal, Mali, Niger, Guinea) more than five centuries ago. It also refers to an even smaller group of people within this ethnic minority who take part in the Lila Derdeba ritual ceremony of spirit possession. The members of this group, numbering less than 300, have preserved their traditions through the centuries; theirs is a story of slavery, survival and adaptation.

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The Kokboru Carousel

Very far away, in the heart of Central Asia. In Bishkek, the capital of Kyrghyztan (the smallest and most mountainous republic of the former Soviet Union), on the outskirts of town, there is a white, vaguely colonial style building, decorated with flags, hammer and sickle symbols. It is the hippodrome, and it is now used for the frantic game of Kokboru now declared Kyrghyz national sport. It's a fast-paced game wherein two mounted teams battle for the headless and dehoofed body of a sheep, calf or goat weighting 20/25 kilos during three rounds of twenty minutes.

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